Three Common Tactics of Cranks, Liars, and Trolls • Richard Carrier

…Gordon breaks down three epistemic immoralities common to Whataboutism. The first is that it often relies on not just an implied Tu Quoque fallacy, but as I just noted, also an implied Fallacy of False Equivalence. As when Republicans in the U.S. try to evade criticism for their beliefs and policies regarding election integrity with the logically irrelevant retort, "What about when Democrats contested elections?" The retort is logically irrelevant even if this were a legit comparison. But it's all the worse that it isn't even a legitmate comparison. As Gordon notes, "the two situations were very different, since in 2016 there were no Democratic senators who contested the results when Congress met to certify them" (and even the few members of Congress who did, did so in full compliance with the law) and "there was no violent mob that stormed the Capitol to interrupt the counting of the electoral votes after Trump won the election in 2016." One could extend the point all the way back to 2000, when there was a legitimate case to be made that Bush stole the election from Gore (through a suspect Supreme Court decision actually shutting down a proper recount of votes), and yet even then Gore conceded—thus demonstrating the greater concern for rule of law and peaceful succession of power that the Republicans are nowbeing criticized for abandoning. No one stormed the capitol in 2001. Nor did anyone try subverting the U.S. Constitution in any other way (like suggesting the VP simply "not certify" the vote)…
https://www.richardcarrier.info/archives/19062